Saroj Khan on Madhuri and dance in Bollywood

Choreographer extraordinaire Saroj Khan has choreographed some of the greatest dance numbers seen on the silver screen and has set those numbers on many of Bollywood’s biggest stars. With the release of Aaja Nachle coming up next week, she recently gave an interview about all things dance including Madhuri and who is the better dancer Govinda or Hrithik.

Surprisingly, Saroj Khan did not do the choreography for Aaja Nachle but she says it was not because there was a problem between Madhuri and her. “There were talks about my fallout with her but this is not true. Madhuri loves me and I love her. In fact she met me when she flew down to India recently. She even told me about her film. We don’t have any issues. It’s just that Vaibhavi Merchant belongs to the Yash Raj camp and they preferred her to choreograph for this film too. Vaibhavi is a talented girl. I hope Madhuri’s film does well.”

Adding, “I’d have loved to if given an opportunity as Madhuri is a kind of dancer who looks fantastic no matter what she does and how she moves! She puts her heart and soul in her dancing. Out of the many actors who I have choreographed, she is the only one with whom I can experiment. I have given her so many weird dance steps but she still did it with ease!”

Khan also talked about dance in Bollywood and particularly how choreography for the films has changed over the years, “Western dance is given preference today. Today no body has to be a dancer to dance in films! Any skimpily clad model like girl comes, shakes her leg and gets away with it! Bollywood dancing has lost its magic. Even the choreographers have lost their individuality. You can’t tell who has choreographed a particular dance. This was not the case before!”

She went on to say that the many of Bollywood’s actors and actresses are certainly not up to the standards of days gone by. “Barring few like Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Rani and Aishwarya Rai, I don’t see any actors who can dance well. They act like they know everything! Even before you start teaching them they nod their head and act as if they know it all! I remember even dancers like Vyjyantimala and Waheeda Rehmaan used to closely pay attention to what their choreographers used to teach them! The urge to learn is not seen today. No one can be compared to the likes of Madhuri and Sridevi when it comes to dancing to date.”

Next up for Khan is a new reality television show, of course centered around dance, called ‘ Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan’. “I’ll be teaching people how to dance like the stars they adore. For instance I’ll teach them how to imitate Madhuri’s dance etc. The show is aimed at everyone. I will be training my own students on the show.”

Finally, answering the question about who is the better dancer Govinda or Hrithik, Khan replied, “Hrithik is a perfectionist but too technical a dancer for someone to imitate him. I’d say Govinda is better because, his dance makes you feel like dancing. Anybody can do a Govinda. His dance is very lively, expressive and full of energy. I’d love to choreograph both of them though.”

We would love to see Govinda and Hrithik in a dance number together and hope one day Saroj Khan will do the honors!